Saturday, November 29, 2014

Government in Bed With the Bed Bugs?

N.H.T.S.A. has received numerous complaints from the owners of 2003-8 Honda Accords that side curtain air bags deployed when a door was slammed or while driving, although the cars were not involved in crashes.Credit American Honda

Federal regulators have intensified an investigation into the inadvertent deployment of side air bags on 2008 Honda Accords. The action comes as owners of Accords from the 2003-4 and 2008 model years face a deadline next month to file claims in a class-action suit over a similar problem.

The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers about 335,000 Accords from the 2008 model year. Regulators are concerned that the side air bags along the outer edges of the ceiling and the seats may deploy when a door is slammed, according to a report posted on the safety agency’s website. The air bags are designed to protect an occupant’s head and chest in a side impact. Honda began installing those systems for the 2003 model year, and by 2008 was equipping every Honda except the S2000 convertible with the system, the automaker said.

The agency began its investigation in January, based on complaints from owners. Late last month, federal regulators said they were intensifying the investigation after receiving reports of 293 cases of the side air bags deploying when a door was slammed shut. Fourteen injuries were reported, the severity of which was not noted.

“My fiancé closed the door,” one owner wrote in October in a report to the agency. “Loud boom and my son starts screaming, crying. I realize once the powdery smoke clears that the air bags entire side curtain and passenger front seat have gone off thus hitting my 9-year-old in the head. Honda is denying it is their fault. Now I have an injured child and the car with about $7,000 damage.”

The inadvertent deployment of side air bags is also the issue in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2009 in a federal district court in California. The suit covers some 2008 Accords, as well as 2003-4 models, and claims that the side-impact air bags are defective because they deploy without an accident, including while the vehicle is moving. The suit also says that Honda told owners, incorrectly, that there is no defect and that the automaker refuses to reimburse customers for repairs that typically cost $3,000 to $6,000.

This November, Jack Zouhary, a judge with the United States District Court for the Central District of California, will consider giving final approval to settlement. He gave tentative approval in January, and owners were sent letters this year. They have until Sept. 2 to file a form seeking compensation for past air-bag deployments.

While Honda agreed to the settlement, it did not admit there was a defect.

According to the terms of the settlement, owners of Accords from the 2003-4 and 2008 model years will be reimbursed for the cost of repairs if they already have already experienced an inadvertent deployment and previously complained to Honda or an authorized dealer. There will also be a two-year warranty for future air-bag deployments for all 2008 owners, but not the owners of the 2003-4 models.

“I think it was just a compromise and a recognition of the age of the car,” Mike Arias, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said in a telephone interview.

Owners of the 2008 Accords would get a better deal if the N.H.T.S.A. investigation led to a recall. Honda would be required to fix all of the air bags, not just reimburse car owners whose air bags had deployed. The government also has the authority to require an automaker to reimburse an owner for a previous repair.

The settlement does not cover 2005-7 Accords.

“Honda made changes to its collision detection systems, which appear to have addressed the inadvertent deployment issue,” Mr. Arias wrote in an email. The numbers of deployments for those years “were extremely low.”

According to the agency consumer complaint database, there were 24 complaints from owners of 2005-7 Accords about inadvertent deployments of the side air bags while the vehicles were moving.

“I was driving on the interstate with the flow of traffic, approximately 60 miles per hour, when there was a sudden explosion and smoke filled the inside of my Honda Accord,” the owner of a 2007 model wrote in a report to the agency late in 2012. “The air bags had deployed for no apparent reason.”

Clarence Ditlow, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said in a telephone interview that there was no excuse for not covering the 2005-7 models.

“If there is less of a problem with the intermediate years, then there are fewer claims that are paid out,” he said. “So why not cover them?” He added that the owners of 2003-4 models should have the same two-year extended warranty as the owners of the 2008 models.

Chris Martin, a Honda spokesman, wrote in an email, “I can’t add anything further regarding the process that went into the settlement. We normally don’t provide detailed comment on pending litigation.”

Under the tentative settlement, the three law firms that filed the suit could receive up to $1.2 million in fees and expenses. Mr. Arias said the firms invested more than $1.5 million into the case and would be losing money.

In response to the federal investigation of the 2008 models, Honda has denied there is a safety problem, saying in a report that “more times than not the person who is slamming the door is the person who has vacated the seat in the vehicle. As a result, the seat is unoccupied and therefore the deployment poses no risk to that seating position.”

Honda has had other problems with air bags recently. One was an issue with front air bags made by the Takata Corporation that were built with an inflator that could explode and shower the passenger compartment with metal fragments. Since late in 2008, Honda has recalled about 8.9 million vehicles worldwide for that problem, Mr. Martin wrote in an email. Honda also said that there were two deaths linked to the defect in the United States.

The auto industry this year has recalled a record number of vehicles for various safety problems, including millions recalled for air bag-related issues.

Correction: August 21, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the government’s authority over payments for previously performed repairs. It is not the case that federal regulators cannot require an automaker to reimburse an owner; they can.